After realizing he was not the end of a joke, Jack relaxed. The man before him, though dressed in garb only familiar to him from his classical education, had a wholly familiar air about him. He would have fit right in on the deck and in the rigging of the Surprise.

"It is somewhat unsettling," Jack agreed. Well it seems we have one thing in common, and that is a start, Jack thought before bowed slightly to the man. "Captain Jack Aubrey, and you are, sir?"